Danbury teen attends young firefighters camp

Published 12:36 am, Tuesday, September 1, 2009

DANBURY -- For some teens, a week at camp means paddling a canoe, swimming in a lake, hiking in the woods and sitting around a campfire in the evening.

But for 18-year-old Ashley Raymond, it meant climbing ladders, toting rolled-up fire hoses, learning to use self-contained breathing apparatus, and falling into bed every night to rest up for another grueling day of the same.

Raymond, a 2008 graduate of Danbury High School who will be starting her sophomore year at Mount St. Mary College in the fall, was one of 21 girls from across the country who spent part of July at the Phoenix Firecamp in Utica, N.Y., a program camp designed for young women interested in careers in the fire service.

"I want to become a flight nurse, like on LifeStar, but that's another two years after college," she said. "You have to be accepted into a flight school program and the competition is pretty tough."

During the summer, Ashley, the daughter of Bob and Audette Raymond, works at Harborside Healthcare's Glen Hill nursing home.

"She know what she wants, that's for sure," Bob Raymond said. "She started working on this when she was 13 years old."

The girls who attended the Phoenix camp ranged in age from 14 to 19. Some had no previous fire department experience, with others, like Ashley, had participated in junior firefighters programs.

But whatever their background, all were held to high standards, she said.

"There were no lowered expectations. If you couldn't do something, the instructor would say, What's wrong with you?' None of us really expected to get that much of a workout," she said.

As a result, Raymond found herself performing tasks she didn't know she was capable of doing, although, by the end of the day, "You really felt it," she said. "Everybody was in bed and sleeping at 10 o'clock."